Friday, June 20, 2014

TSA Week in Review – 36 Firearms Discovered This Week (33 Loaded)

36Firearms Discovered
This Week – Of the 36 firearms, 33 were loaded and seven
had rounds chambered. See more photos at the bottom of this post.

Inert projectile in checked bag at CVG.

Inert Ordnance and Grenades etc. – We continue to find inert
hand grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis. Please keep in mind that
if an item looks like a real bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited.
When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can
cause significant delays because the explosives detection professionals must
resolve the alarm to determine the level of threat. Even if they are novelty
items, you cannot bring them on a plane. Read
here on why inert items cause problems.

An
inert projectile was discovered in a checked bag at Cincinnati (CVG).

Artfully
Concealed Prohibited Items – It’s important to examine your bags prior to
traveling to ensure prohibited items are not inside. If a prohibited item is
discovered in your bag or on your body, you could be cited and possibly
arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where
prohibited items were found by our officers in strange places.

There has been a growing trend in the number of
credit-card knives discovered at checkpoints. 45 credit card knives were discovered just this
week at checkpoints. 11 were discovered at San Francisco (SAN), six at
Minneapolis (MSP), six at Nashville (BNA), five at Tampa (TPA), three at Grand
Rapids (GRR), two at Long Beach (LGB), two at Billings (BIL), two at Colorado
Springs (COS), two at Traverse City (TVC), and the remainder were discovered atCincinnati (CVG),
Fargo (FAR), Northwest Arkansas (XNA), St. Petersburg (PIE), Texarkana (TXK),
and Tri Cities (TRI). Check out this
blog postfor more information on
credit card knives.

Ammunition – When packed
properly, ammunition can be transported in your checked baggage, but it is
never permissible to pack ammo in your carry-on bag.

Ammunition in carry-on bag at MDW

Guns Discovered at (L-R /T-B) MEM, ROC, CLT, and SJC

Guns Discovered at (L-R /T-B)DTW, PHX, CRW, and MCO

Firearm discovered in carry-on bag at AUS

Guns Discovered at (L-R /T-B) ECP, ECP, ATL, and SAT

*In
order to provide a timely weekly update, this data is compiled from a
preliminary report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly from what is
reported in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear or end-of-year
numbers TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will be actual numbers and not
estimates.

Unfortunately
these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about
these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are
finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the line is
slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a
citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as
high as $7,500. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items
at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean
they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In
many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

When I haved opted out of the body scanner, I have sometimes been told that I must get a patdown that is the equivalent level of screening as the body scanner. However, the patdown ends with the TSA officer testing his gloves for explosive residue. The people in the body scanner don't get tested for explosives, so it seems like the patdown is not equivalent to the body scanner but more intense than the body scanner. Shouldn't the level of security be the same at both? I don't think the body scanner is capable of detecting explosive residue.

Seven guns with rounds in the chamber? Not a good thing, of course. Thirty-six guns found? Also not good, but really, there were 2,000,000 people on 210,000 flights last week so 36 people, if they were all on different flights, is only .017% of all flights and .0018% of all passengers.

How many of these 36 people were terrorists? How many of them have been proven to have intention of using these guns as a threat to aviation safety?

How many people you tout every week as "good catches" have ever been proven to be terrorists threatening aviation safety????

Anon sez - "So what happens to all of the weapons discovered? They are seized and forfeited and then destroyed?"

Anon also sez - "Are you making arrests and prosecuting these people or are just confiscating their weapons. Are they able to carry weapons again or fly again. Just wondering."

In cases where firearms are discovered during screening, local LEOs are contacted to handle those items. The final disposition of the firearms and any related charges are left solely to the local LEOs.

TSA is now censoring my continuing questions asking for TSA policy regarding medical forms of nitroglycerin. I have demonstrated that the supposed answer provided in no way is responsive to the question. Censoring free speech demonstrates that TSA and its employees have little use for the United States Constitution.

So once again TSA what is TSA's official policy regarding medical nitroglycerin?

If medical nitroglycerin is permitted what recourse does a traveler have if an attempt is made to not allow medical nitroglycerin at a TSA checkpoint?

I fail to understand the reluctance of TSA to address an important question. What is TSA afraid of? Lastly, I feel this question should be fielded by someone higher up the TSA heirarchy than a person at next to the lowest level of TSA's rank structure.

Sandra said...A question was asked of Ross Feinstein on FT regarding nitroglycerin pills, RB. He was also asked about public resolution pat downs; he has not addressed that question either.June 22, 2014 at 10:52 AM...............................Seems that TSA must not have a policy regarding travelers life saving medicines nor the management skills to formulate and implement policy.

The utter incompetence of TSA makes me question why TSA has raised the TSA Security fees by more than 100% before engaging in the required Notice for Proposed Rule Making.

TSA has wasted vast amounts of tax dollars since day one and continues to do so.

Explosive Trace Portals, junked.

Backscatter Strip Search Machines, junked

Explosive Trace Detectors, should be junked

Behavior Detection, proven by GAO to be no better than guessing and recommended by GAO to be junked.

Millions upon millions of dollars squandered by TSA and then they cry they need more of our hard earned dollars.

Thanks TSA for the obviously thankless job you do. A question for the naysayers--why would anybody put what looks like cheap razor blades behind Scooby Doo, and a 22 round in a tube of antibiotic gel? At face value that doesn't look like normal law abiding citizen behavior to me. Didn't know the 22 rounds in my safe were subject to infection. Explain to the rest of us how these people accidentally forgot they had that in their bag.

Goodman said... "Seven guns with rounds in the chamber? Not a good thing, of course."

certainly not. of 36 firearms illegally confiscated, only 7 were available for immediate self-defesive use. sad.

"Thirty-six guns found? Also not good, but really, there were 2,000,000 people on 210,000 flights last week so 36 people, if they were all on different flights, is only .017% of all flights and .0018% of all passengers."

not good only in the sense that according to the latest testing numbers available to the public, they missed at least 84 (70%), significantly more than pre-911 screening would have caught. and all this to no useful purpose, since none of those folks were actual threats to avaiation, and at immense taxpayer expense.

"How many of these 36 people were terrorists?"

none. but we all, including the TSA, already knew that. it's just a jobs program at this point.

"How many of them have been proven to have intention of using these guns as a threat to aviation safety?"

none.

"How many people you tout every week as "good catches" have ever been proven to be terrorists threatening aviation safety????"

I continue to wait for some justification for active duty military being included in pre-check, but not retired military or holders of current DoD or LE background investigations. military retirees have at least 20 years documented service to this Nation, pretty much proving their lack of risk. both DoD and LE background investigations should reveal any risk factors. active duty military do not, necessarily, have a background check or any significant length of service. neither citizenship nor a background investigation is required to enlist in the military, in fact there are likely illegal immigrants serving. if it is really about safety, then why are potentially unscreened non-citizens allowed through? sounds like it is just pandering to an admirable group to get PR, not adjusting the rules to ease screening on those who present a lower likelihood of threat.Let me be clear: pre-911 screening should be the norm. it is all that is required, now that cockpit doors have been reinforced and locked, and flight crews and passengers know that the rules have changed and passivity=death. however, if we are going to continue this massive waste of tax dollars on security theatre, at least have _some_ of the rules make sense.

Anonymous said...Thanks TSA for the obviously thankless job you do. A question for the naysayers--why would anybody put what looks like cheap razor blades behind Scooby Doo, and a 22 round in a tube of antibiotic gel? At face value that doesn't look like normal law abiding citizen behavior to me. Didn't know the 22 rounds in my safe were subject to infection. Explain to the rest of us how these people accidentally forgot they had that in their bag.

June 23, 2014 at 9:29 AM..................With somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million people traveling by air each day there are sure to be some boneheaded people with airline tickets. I agree there is little excuse to have a weapon in your baggage unless it is properly declared and packed for travel. I have no issue with these people suffering substantial fines or criminal charges if warranted.

That doesn't change the fact that TSA confiscates things like cupcakes, babies and toddlers beverages, peoples LGA's when there is truly no risk or even as we have heard reports that some TSA screeners are confiscating life saving medicine for no other reason that it has a scary word for a name.

IF TSA wants to gain some respect for its employees then mandatory retraining of the entire workforce is in order.

Ending the war on LGA's should be implemented today and if not immediate action should be taken to ensure that all LGA's confiscated at the checkpoint are treated as a threat item with appropriate reports taken for each and every item confiscated. Not treating these LGA's as threats demonstrate clearly that TSA does not believe these items are truly threatening in any way.

Whole Body scanners should only be used as a secondary screening device, after using a WTMD first, and before any direct hands on screening takes place.

GAO has convincingly demonstrated that TSA's BDO program is a complete waste of money and manpower. TSA's budget and manning levels should be reduce by Congress to eliminate both funding and staffing for these unneeded positions. Tax payers should not be taxed for John S. Pistole's wasteful actions.

Finally, anyone can see that TSA checkpoints are severely overstaffed. People standing around checking smartphones while lines are backed up making the TSA screening process a lengthy as time wasteful experience. If TSA cannot put these people to active tasks then a further reduction in TSA budget and staffing levels should be enacted by Congress. I suggest a 50% budget reduction and a 30% staffing reduction across the board.

TSA screening functions are reasonably simple unskilled tasks and only rate employee pay at minimum wage levels. TSA should immediately move to realign staffing and compensation levels to reflect this level of pay.

The public deserves a better, more frugal TSA. One that responds to public concerns and can demonstrate that its policies and procedures actually add to commercial airline safety levels.

"Thanks TSA for the obviously thankless job you do. A question for the naysayers--why would anybody put what looks like cheap razor blades behind Scooby Doo, and a 22 round in a tube of antibiotic gel? At face value that doesn't look like normal law abiding citizen behavior to me. Didn't know the 22 rounds in my safe were subject to infection. Explain to the rest of us how these people accidentally forgot they had that in their bag. June 23, 2014 at 9:29 AM"

Why would someone carry a razor blade hidden inside something? Because they wanted to carry a razor blade for any of dozens of legal or illegal reasons. We don't know and neither does TSA.

If you cannot think of a single reason why someone who may not have checked baggage may want to carry something that can be used to shave or cut hair, boxes, sheetrock, plastic, etc. at their destination, that is your problem.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. A razor blade cannot take over a plane. The cockpit doors are locked and the moment a guy started cutting someone with the blade, the rest of the passengers would attack him and subdue him.

How do people forget things in their bags? Because people are not perfect. Because people get busy or don't have good memories or are careless or want to carry the item and don't know it's against TSA rules or.... That's why. Not one person found in these "good catches" has been proven to intend to use the "good catch" in an act of aviation terrorism. Not one in over a decade.

On top of that, TSA still misses seven weapons for every three it finds. Still thanking TSA?

The TSA is sticking it to America again and upped the ante. They originally wanted to raise the TSA fee to $5.60 each way of a trip. Now they want to raise it to $2.50 PER LEG if there is a long layover between flights. This unnecessarily penalizes people flying in remote or rural parts of America.

And we shouldn't be increasing the fee in the first place, since TSA is already wasting $8 Billion every year with their ineffective and violating polices and practices.

Speaking of Firearms seems that TSA and the TSA's Air Marshal Service needs some outside housecleaing. On top of that it certainly looks like TSA Administrator Pistole gave favorable treatment to a high level TSA official while hammering the working class FAM's.

"TSA Administrator John S. Pistole allowed Director Robert Bray to 'NOT' be disciplined for Bray's conduct regarding a gun scandal that made national news," the initial complaint reads, according to a copy obtained by FoxNews.com.

"TSA Administrator Pistol intentionally treated Director Bray favorably while other TSA employees were all disciplined for trivial allegations of misconduct. Pistole is Bray's supervisor and allowed Bray to enjoy a 'clean' record but denied other employees the same benefit.

"Bray was not disciplined for his criminal acts nor was he disciplined for violating policy."

The public can now see that TSA's Pistole is not to be trusted to carry our the public's work.

Pistole should resign if he has any honor and if he does not President Obama should remove Pistole from government service!

This is my first time reading this blog and I find it interesting and laughable at times (how can someone "forget" they have their loaded gun in their carry-on? why would an adult be stupid enough to fly with a replica of any type of weapon?)

I'm wondering about stun guns, mace and/or protective "weapons" that women might carry for self-defense. Surely they get busted from time to time for forgetting that they were travelling with their little buddies.

Do you guys keep tabs on how many weapons are confiscated from women vs. men? I'm not advocating that anyone carry weapons on a plane; just curious from a research point of view since more women are starting to carry items of protection from violence should they travel to a big city, etc.

Sammy G--please don't make accusations that aren't correct. I do not work for the TSA, but from 29 years in the AF, I do have a pretty good background on the threat and current intelligence. That's probably how I got my current job, in which I use info from this blog to let me know some of the stuff being found. Bullets don't just accidentally wind up in a tube of antibiotic cream. When you connect the dots on this, it doesn't end up with a cute picture of a doggie or kitty. I'm a firm believer in the 2nd amendment, but I really question a person's competency if they can't remember where they left something as important as a firearm.

"How many of these 36 people were terrorists? How many of them have been proven to have intention of using these guns as a threat to aviation safety?

How many people you tout every week as "good catches" have ever been proven to be terrorists threatening aviation safety????"

The general public for some reson thinks th epurpose of TSA is to "catch Terrorist" it isnt. The purpose of TSA is to stop threat items from getting on board commercial airliners. On 9/11 had TSA stopped teh hijackers and taken away their box cutters, nobody would have known about it. TSA simply would have done their jobs of keeping a threat item (box cutter) off of an airplane. The result of TSA doing their job would have been that they also stopped the largets terrorist attack ever, but nobody would have known. The same is true today. If they catch a gun, they did their job, The kept a threat item off the plane. Did they prevent a terror attack? Who knows, that isnt their job.

"The U.S. government's no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday."

There ya go TSA.

The tide is starting to go out and the abuses that DHS and TSA hve been shoveling on the citizens and guest of this country are not going to be tolerated.

"The purpose of TSA is to stop threat items from getting on board commercial airliners....

Did they prevent a terror attack? Who knows, that isnt their job."

So, if it isn't the TSA's job to prevent a terror attack, then why does the agency interrogate those who apply for PreCheck and do a background checks on them? Why do they do vet every single passenger who make a reservation?

If the TSA's job is only to keep WEI off planes, then everything else they do is nothing more than mission creep.

[[Mark said...Goodman said: "How many people you tout every week as "good catches" have ever been proven to be terrorists threatening aviation safety????”

The answer is ZERO.]]

Fact is that terrorists do not wear signs stating that they are terrorists. So there is no possible way for anyone to make an absolute determination on how may were or were not terrorists. At best your number is a guess, at worst it is completely accurate. I would prefer the latter, I don’t like terrorists and would prefer that they not try and go to our nation’s airports. The last clear effort ended in a national disaster, not my idea of a good time.

In reference to the “PR” aspect of your assumptions, undoubtedly that is what the blog is about. It is also about providing the flying public with information that they “may” need, and they do a pretty good job of it. The other stuff might be seen as “fluff”, but maybe someone will take it as a warning of what to “Not To Do”.

So, if it isn't the TSA's job to prevent a terror attack, then why does the agency interrogate those who apply for PreCheck and do a background checks on them? Why do they do vet every single passenger who make a reservation?

If the TSA's job is only to keep WEI off planes, then everything else they do is nothing more than mission creep.

But most of us here knew that already.

screen shot/DHS OIG statement

June 25, 2014 at 7:04 AM

I appologize, I worded that last sentence wrong. I meant did they catch a terrorist? That isnt there job.Its simple, their job is to prevent threat items from getting on planes. Do they do a 100% job? Of course not, but who does? Does CBP keep all illegals out of our country? No, but are you complaining? Does the fire department prevent all fires? do cops catch all the bad guys? The answer is no. But as soon as TSA misses something people are in an uproar. the more important and accurate question is, how many terror attacks have happened on an American based airline since the inception of TSA? The answer is ZERO.TSA screeners look for theat items,not terrorists.

I agree that all TSA should be doing is screening for WEI. That's their job but like all government power grabbers the people of TSA have redefined what they can do and it no longer represents the law.